The CIR Digital Workbook Companion

This Recovery Journey was created first and foremost as a companion to The Catholic in Recovery Workbook. The reflections, prompts, questions, and videos you encounter here are meant to enrich and deepen your experience of the workbook—not to replace it. While you can complete this Recovery Journey without the workbook, we strongly encourage you to do so alongside it. The workbook provides a much deeper and more comprehensive overview of each of the twenty modules as well as the Twelve Steps in light of the Catholic faith. As a CIR+ member, you automatically receive a 25% discount on the workbook.

There is no single way to move through this Recovery Journey, just as there is no single way to work one’s recovery. However, there are guiding principles that can help you get the most from it. Just as we do not work our recovery alone, we encourage you to complete this Recovery Journey alongside others. These sections are best engaged under the guidance of a sponsor and/or with a Catholic in Recovery group, 12-step group, or related spiritual community. We offer a Living the Steps series at certain times throughout the year to journey through the workbook with CIR fellows. Further, we strongly encourage you to begin attending CIR meetings if you aren’t already. In meetings, we encounter the healing and freedom that can only come through fellowship with others. Attending meetings, whether CIR meetings, secular 12-step meetings, or both, gives you the best chance of finding and maintaining recovery.

Unlike some of our other Recovery Journeys, each module is not meant to be covered in a single day. Some modules might require a week or two to properly complete at a minimum. Some modules may even take a month or longer to complete. Again, this is why doing this Recovery Journey under the guidance of a sponsor and/or with others in recovery is strongly advised. They can help you discern when you’re ready to move onto a new module and when more time is needed before doing so. The point is not to finish quickly, but to find healing from your addiction, compulsion, or unhealthy attachment with God’s grace. Each module of the Recovery Journey includes a short video teaching, a specific prayer, a series of reflection questions, and action items to help you internalize and act upon the recovery and spiritual principles covered. The videos are meant to illuminate key themes from the workbook, while the reflection and action prompts invite you to apply them to your daily life. You’re encouraged to return to previous modules as much as you need.

Wherever you are on your recovery journey, know that you are not alone—and that you are deeply loved by God. May this Recovery Journey and the CIR workbook help lead you into the freedom that Christ desires for you.